"Promoting the Progress" or Paying for Delay? Balancing Patent and Antitrust Law in the Age of Health Care Reform

In patent litigation valued between $1 million and $25 million, a patent owner should expect to spend more than $2 million litigating the patent through trial and appeal. Costs can climb above $4 million where more than $25 million is at stake. While the rewards for successfully enforcing a patent may be large and beneficial, the risks are large as well: loss of the patent through invalidation means a loss in, among other things, current or potential licensing revenue enjoyed by the patent holder. Sunk costs for research, development, and bringing to market a product or process that may be the subject of the claims of the patent also raise the stakes of litigation. The risks and rewards involving pharmaceutical patent litigation are no exception, and may be higher in many respects...